Jaws

A few months ago in response to my friend Nick (Cinema Romantico) who had made a list of the top ten movies, my best friend Brad (Wretched Genius) countered with the following:

"I cannot argue much against your list, but I always die a little inside when people make a list of great movies and do not include "Jaws." It is the perfect blockbuster film. Everything about it (with the exception of the production itself) is flawless. The characters are richly developed, the suspense is actually suspenseful, the effects are seemless, and it has an ending so rousing you forget that sharks don't actually hold large metal objects in their mouths for long periods of time. And Williams' score is a classic. And try to tell me that the monologue about the USS Indianapolis isn't brilliant. Or the scene where Roy Scheider is drunk at the dinner table. Watch the dinner scene again, but don't watch Scheider. Watch Dreyfuss and Lorraine Gary. Brilliant."

Having re-watched Jaws last night I can't help but agree with Brad. And actually I wish he would take more time to express his opinions on movies since I can no longer go hang out with him at a bar on a Friday night and ask him what he thought being so far away.

Jaws takes place on Amity Island a small New England community that makes its money each year from the tourists who laugh and play on its beautiful beaches. Its a small town with recent transplant from New York, Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) as the new local law enforcement. A shark attack has Brody desiring to close the beaches to which the local vendors and town council object greatly. Coming to the island to aid Brody is a shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and local fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) has also volunteered his services. While the first half of the movie is devoted to happenings on the island as the locals bumble and create more devastation, the second half without missing a beat turns into a tense hunt/cat and mouse game between the shark and Brody, Quint and Hooper.

Brad is right about characterization, Brody is fully fleshed out as the police man who came to Amity to escape all the crime and drama of New York. Hooper is smart (ass), shark enthusiast who quickly respects Brody and thinks everyone else on the island may well be a moron. And Quint, Quint is one of those great characters that I suspect a good actor dreams of. I seem to be quoting lots of dialogue in reviews lately but I just can't help how picture perfect the scene when Hooper and Quint meet is.

Hooper is loading his shark gear onto the boat and Quint comes across his shark cage which Hooper explains is an anti-shark cage. And Quint with a bemused twinkle in his eyes and a knowing smile says:

"You go in the cage...cage goes in the water... you go in the water. Shark's in the water. Our shark." and as Quint slowly backs away still with that knowing smile begins to sing of all things: "Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders for to sail back to Boston. And so nevermore shall we see you again."

If you've seen the film before you know why that seen is so telling and if you haven't you find out very shortly. The U.S.S Indianapolis speech that Quint gives later is haunting and genuine and tells one of the most fascinating stories about shark attacks that has ever occurred. And the looks on Brody's and Hooper's faces as they finally understand Quint are priceless.

One of the things that makes Jaws work so well is that you don't see the shark for a full hour and then only briefly and not very well. You don't get a real good look at it until about 80 minutes into the movie and this is exactly when Scheider utters his famous line "we're going to need a bigger boat."

As for the end? Well as the trio fully realizes that they may have just been out thought by a shark and that they might very well be dead soon, things begin happening fast. Spielberg arguing with the writer Peter Benchley about the end's plausibility said something like, if they've followed me for the last two hours, they'll follow me for the next three minutes. And he was write. Its enough to say that Mr. Spielberg should go back and look at his early film and realize that he used to know how to end a movie.